"It must change" : the art of digression in twentieth-century American poetry -- "To explain grace requires a curious hand" : Marianne Moore's interdisciplinary digressions -- Changing the szujet : Lyn Hejinian's digressive narratology and the writing of history -- Digression personified : Whitman, the New York School, and the drift of poetry -- New digressions : John Ashbery and the changing subjects of the twenty-first century.